Rated People - what's the point?

jaybeetoo

I need to replace my old gas boiler. I wanted a couple of quotes in addition to the man who services my boiler. Never having used Rated People I thought I'd give them a try. After all it is fronted by Phil Spencer and the site boasts 'for quality, local tradesman'.

One of the guys who came to see me didn't know what he was talking about. I checked what he told me on the Worcester and Valliant web sites which confirmed he was talking rubbish. I complained to Rated People and they weren't interested.

So if Rated People don't check the tradesmen before they are allowed to buy leads, and they don't seem interested in following up on poor feedback, how can they say they use 'quality' tradesmen?

I may as well pick out people from my local paper.

Have I just had a one-off bad experience?

C_Mababejive

Phil Spencer is a parasite,just like Dom Littlewood and all the rest of them who make a living off the backs of hard working men and women by slating them and branding them all as Tradesmen and rip off merchants.

Pay no heed to these scum and their rubbish websites. They have no interest other than making money for themselves and have never known a proper days work in their lives.

Born into a life of priveledge,went to Uppingham independent school where he was head boy and has since spent his life behind a desk,biro knibbling writing for papers and slagging off hard working men and women. A true Leech,,just like Alsop,he partner in crime.Daughter of the 6th Baron Hindlip and his missus. Went to the best schools and then worked for mummy and daddy,presumably because she was unemployable elsewhere. Went the way of Spencer..driving a desk as a Brio knibbler.

Dom Littlewood..another biro knibbler who has never known a days work and yet has built up a journalistic career out of pursuing and slagging off working men and women. Currently fronts saints and scroungers allegedly targetting benefit cheats though of course he neglects to highlight his own parasitic activities.

phill99

None of the websites promoting tradesmen vet the tradesmen or inspect their work.

I regularly get calls from them and for a fee I can go on there.

It makes a mockery of the whole thing and the general public are being conned.

Leif

What Phil99 said. These sites are there to separate the trade from their money, and then market them. Checking is very basic.

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Phil Spencer is a parasite,just like Dom Littlewood and all the rest of them who make a living off the backs of hard working men and women by slating them and branding them all as Tradesmen and rip off merchants.

Pay no heed to these scum and their rubbish websites. They have no interest other than making money for themselves and have never known a proper days work in their lives.

Born into a life of priveledge,went to Uppingham independent school where he was head boy and has since spent his life behind a desk,biro knibbling writing for papers and slagging off hard working men and women. A true Leech,,just like Alsop,he partner in crime.Daughter of the 6th Baron Hindlip and his missus. Went to the best schools and then worked for mummy and daddy,presumably because she was unemployable elsewhere. Went the way of Spencer..driving a desk as a Brio knibbler.

Dom Littlewood..another biro knibbler who has never known a days work and yet has built up a journalistic career out of pursuing and slagging off working men and women. Currently fronts saints and scroungers allegedly targetting benefit cheats though of course he neglects to highlight his own parasitic activities.

Hilarious. There is a slight whiff of the class warrior above methinks. Can you really slag someone off because they went to a posh school? Is that not just as bad as calling someone a 'peasant' or an 'oik' because they went to a comprehensive, or come from - God forbid - Liverpool?

C_Mababejive

#4 Yes i take your point. It just irks me that because this useless trio cant find honest gainful employment,they set themselves up as some kind of pimps for hard working men and women as if they know something about hard work. None of them know anything about the skilled professions related to building and associated services. They are just leeches who seek to make money pimping out ordinary people due to their dubious notoriety.
Their views are as worthless as their websites.

cambermam

I thought the whole point was that customer "rate" them and before you use them you check their ratings and decide if they might be any good. If you choose someone on there with no ratings then yes it's exactly like choosing someone from the paper. Obviously there are idiots everywhere and this website can't really prevent them. I used that site once for some flooring and they were very good but they had 30+ ratings of 4 and 5 stars so i was a bit more reassured with those.

C_Mababejive

Why not expand their rated people website to include dentists,lawyers,estate agents and similar or does Mr Spencer feel that they are all above reproach/He doesnt have the bottle to suggest that there might be some iffy ones?

Leif

C_Mababejive wrote: »

#4 Yes i take your point. It just irks me that because this useless trio cant find honest gainful employment,they set themselves up as some kind of pimps for hard working men and women as if they know something about hard work. None of them know anything about the skilled professions related to building and associated services. They are just leeches who seek to make money pimping out ordinary people due to their dubious notoriety.
Their views are as worthless as their websites.

That is far more acceptable. I'm not saying I agree with you, I don't know much about them, although Spencer gets on my nerves, and his web site is rather vacuous.

Leif

cambermam wrote: »

I thought the whole point was that customer "rate" them and before you use them you check their ratings and decide if they might be any good. If you choose someone on there with no ratings then yes it's exactly like choosing someone from the paper. Obviously there are idiots everywhere and this website can't really prevent them. I used that site once for some flooring and they were very good but they had 30+ ratings of 4 and 5 stars so i was a bit more reassured with those.

Sadly it does not work like that. There are suggestions that many reviews are faked. I have been told by several members how CheckATrade members can fake reviews. I have never tried, and I am not a member, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information. My experience of someone from CheckATrade with 47 glowing reviews was that they were incompetent cowboys who paid me almost £2000 compensation after Trading Standards intervened. There are good people on these sites, but there are also bad. Personally I'd try to find someone with recommendations from people you know, and you've seen the work.

jaybeetoo

cambermam wrote: »

If you choose someone on there with no ratings then yes it's exactly like choosing someone from the paper.

The person who talked rubbish had lots of great ratings.

tigerfeet101

hi guys just looking to do some research for a new website im desighning please let me know the pros/cons of such sitesa like checkatrade/rated people as i think i have a plan to ensure 100% satisfaction to customer and the builder (providing they do what is asked)